Earlier this week, I had the possibility to go hands-on with LEGO Horizon Adventures. Alongside all my different reward for this recreation, I actually liked the immense degree of element put into making each LEGO brick element. That’s not a coincidence, both, because it seems your entire world is made out of particular person bricks in a method that would apparently be reconstructed in actual life from precise bodily LEGO units.
Speaking to me at Summer Game Fest Play Days over the weekend, Guerrilla Games narrative director James Windeler instructed me about how this unusual collaboration between Guerrilla and LEGO took place. Guerrilla had initially prototyped Horizon: Zero Dawn’s robotic dinosaurs in DUPLO and had quite a lot of curiosity in mannequin constructing. The crew wished to make one thing extra lighthearted for its subsequent undertaking. And then there was that LEGO Tallneck collaboration from just a few years again. On the LEGO facet, LEGO actually appreciated that the Horizon video games had vibrant colours and optimistic themes, in addition to a comparatively inclusive fanbase. Put all of it collectively, and it’s no surprise the 2 corporations got here to an understanding.
Most LEGO video games thus far have been made by what’s now referred to as TT Games, however TT isn’t concerned with this one. Instead, co-development group Studio Gobo and LEGO are working with Guerrilla Games, which itself has assembled a crew together with various people who labored on the unique Zero Dawn. Windeler tells me lots of them have had children since Zero Dawn launched, and people children at the moment are reaching an age the place their dad and mom need to play video video games with them. Hence, Horizon Adventures’ co-op characteristic.
But a distinct crew additionally means completely different approaches and capabilities, and for Guerrilla specifically that meant actually sweating the LEGO particulars. Windeler says the crew wished Horizon Adventures to really feel like a “playable LEGO film,” and notes that each single asset within the recreation is “constructed from a person [LEGO] brick.”
“It’s designed by grasp builders,” he says. “All of this stuff, from the best components of Horizon, the majestic nature, the machines, the characters, they’re all following the principles of bodily LEGO. So despite the fact that they’re made as digital property, you can construct them technically out of bodily units…And it additionally extends to the animation fashion and the best way that the characters transfer within the recreation. There’s this sort of stop-motion of the entire characters. Yeah, it is like a toy. ‘Toyetic’ was a phrase that was thrown round rather a lot as a goal, and it is the concept that you are enjoying probably with your individual collectible figurines.”
What Windeler is describing definitely confirmed in my hands-on time with the sport. I identified that when characters fall off a excessive ledge, they humorously plop down flat like a LEGO shoved off a shelf. Then they rapidly pop again up and trot off once more with the jerky motions of a kid strolling a LEGO character round on a play mat. There are different little nods like that to the general really feel of enjoying with LEGOs – for example, once I rescued some Nora villagers in my demo, there have been just a few generic LEGO individuals combined in with the Horizon-themed costumes. What was that about?
“When you are a child, once you’re enjoying LEGO, with LEGO, you are not essentially constructing this utterly unified world,” Windeler explains. “You’re utilizing the LEGO that you’ve got out of your set.” Fair sufficient.
Windeler can’t touch upon whether or not or not the very actual buildability of LEGO Horizon Adventures means extra LEGO Horizon units are on the best way, nor can he communicate for whether or not or not different PlayStation IP will get LEGO video games. He does inform me that LEGO Horizon Adventures’ story is about seven to eight hours lengthy, and may have a replayable ingredient on the finish that may enable gamers to revisit areas they’d beforehand visited and unlock extra customizations and different issues. As Windeler instructed me, Horizon Adventures isn’t presupposed to be a 20+ hour journey the best way Horizon: Zero Dawn was. It’s loosely based mostly on Zero Dawn, nevertheless it’s meant to be digestible for everybody – not simply ten hours of in-jokes for current followers of Horizon.
“There’s tons of nods, and I discussed iconic scenes that we have reinterpreted that will likely be recognizable and hopefully joyful to a fan of the sequence, however on the identical time, we wish individuals to come back in who don’t have any Horizon data.”
For extra particulars on LEGO Horizon Adventures, you possibly can try our full hands-on preview. We additionally performed the brand new Astro Bot recreation on the identical PlayStation appointment, and have a preview for that as properly.
